Wednesday, August 19

Nickels, Sonics To Meet Similar Fates?

Results are still not complete, but it appears as though Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will soon be facing a fate similar to the one he created for the Seattle Sonics last summer:

Irrelevancy.

With half the votes counted, The Seattle Times reports that Nickels trails two other candidates, Mike McGinn and Joe Mallahan, in the mayoral primary, meaning the two-time incumbent would be on the outside looking in for the final race this fall.

It's hard to say just how much impact Nickels' shameful handling of the Sonics' debacle played in his candidacy, but consider this - the current tabulation of voting percentages stands at:

McGinn 26.6

Mallahan 25.77

Nickels 25.06

That's an extremely close race, with fewer than 1,000 votes keeping Nickels out of the election this fall. Obviously, with a race this tight and ballots not completely counted, things could change in the days to come, but it certainly begs the question:

Is it possible that when Greg Nickels sealed the fate of the Seattle SuperSonics last July, he simultaneously sealed his own fate as well?